Dietitians' responsibilities include understanding medications.
While individuals wouldn’t need to know too much about the medications being considered for treatment of SARS-CoV2 because they would need to be prescribed by a medical professional, as a Registered Dietitian, I am not in the category of an individual or a patient.
My training and work experience as a dietitian included seeking more information about health strategies or treatments and disease process and changes in nutrient needs across the lifespan. I was trained and expected to understand the basic mechanism of action of drugs and any nutrient/medication interactions that might make a patient need more of a nutrient in their diet or to avoid a nutrient or food, or any disease processes that might increase need for a nutrient or make limiting a nutrient or nutrients important for maintaining or restoring function. As a medical professional it is in my job training and experience to actively seek and read medical research regarding any diagnosis that is rare enough to not have standardized guidance available for patients or practitioners.
Save a few lives and you have a real grasp of how fragile life can be and how precious. May peace and safety, and good health be with you.
Traditional Chinese Medicinals - Chen pi & other recommendations used in China for guidance for individuals to use at home for milder illness, & practitioners to use in addition to modern medications.
TCM Treatment of COVID-19, based on extensive experience in Chinese hospitals, by Adam Tate, March 20, 2020, updated March 25, 2020. (medicinetraditions.com) -- This includes stages of severity of illness and examples of symptoms that occur in the different stages, and herbal recipes recommended for the specific stage and symptom set. The Chinese medical professionals have found that a combination of the traditional medicinal herb mixtures and modern medicines to be more effective than either alone for treating patients with more severe COVID19 infections.
Whole herbs often seem to work well or even better than single extracts as the various phytonutrients in the herb may work together synergistically - adding up to a greater benefit together than any one would alone. Ginger is one of them, and is a very potent anti-inflammatory root vegetable that contains over 400 medically active phytonutrients.
Acupuncture recommendations are also included for milder illness and some strategies for improving air quality within an apartment. For anyone questioning the validity of acupuncture - the Meridian network was found to represent an additional vascular system that develops in an embryo/fetus before the blood vessels and lymphatic vessels and somewhat is associated with the other vascular networks. Nodes in the acupuncture vascular system are involved in stem cell production and stimulating acupuncture points may benefit health in part by stimulating stem cell production. (2) And it may stimulate our own internal production of opiates. (3)
Foods and nutrient or herbal supplements that I take:
If interested, not a recommendation, just as an example - my list of vitamin, mineral & herbal supplements that I take, and which may have helped with my recovery from untested illness with symptoms similar to the current COVID-19 cases. I also try to include certain whole foods daily/regularly including a 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, 1-2 tablespoons of the inner membrane of pomegranate peel, orange with the white pithy inner peel left on, cumin, coriander, cardamom, rosemary, thyme, Gumbo file powder, cilantro, carrot, onion, celery, garlic, greens, beans, rice or amaranth, cashews, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pistachios and/or walnuts, omega 3 fatty acid fish oil, lemon juice, pomegranate juice, dried cherries and/or dried cranberries. Occasionally pears, coconut yogurt, commercial rice breakfast cereal. Other vegetables, mushrooms, parsnips, winter squash, sweet potato, leeks, chives, romaine lettuce, kale, etc, variety of foods increases variety of trace nutrients in the diet.
Due to autoimmune disease and other food intolerances I have to avoid many foods and ingredients refined from the food so I try to take some vitamins regularly to fill in gaps due to my restricted diet (no dairy due to congestion, gluten due to inflammation & autoimmune reactions, no animal products except the fish oil, because albumin became an autoimmune problem).
The 30% calories from carbohydrate nutrient analysis series was based on the foods I had been using typically at the time. See: post1, post2, post3.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. It is not intended to provide individual guidance. Please seek a health care provider for individualized health care guidance.
Reference List
Adam Tate, TCM Treatment of COVID-19, based on extensive experience in Chinese hospitals, March 20, 2020, updated March 25, 2020. medicinetraditions.com, https://www.medicinetraditions.com/tcm-treatment-of-covid-19.html?fbclid=IwAR0jWwy7J7H5ZN2OVzoAQnqMUMIQ5aIDRxCjEGj5R6eSSldTvS4hg5d0Dak
Vitaly Vodyanoy, Oleg Pustovyy, Ludmila Globa, and Iryna Sorokulova, Primo-Vascular System as Presented by Bong Han Kim, in Special Issue: New Developments in Primo Vascular System: Imaging and Functions with regard to Acupuncture. Ev. Based Complimentary & Alt. Medicine, 2015, Article ID 361974, 17 pages, https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/361974 https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2015/361974/
Donald D. Price, David J. Mayer, Evidence for endogenous opiate analgesic mechanisms triggered by somatosensory stimulation (including acupuncture) in humans. J of Pain, 4;1, P40-43, MARCH 01, 1995 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1082-3174(11)80074-7 https://www.jpain.org/article/S1082-3174(11)80074-7/pdf